Compassion towards the most disadvantaged is not a given. Humanistic emotions, constitutive of the left as well as the democratic ideal, are caricatured, inverted, and ridiculed by the far right and its media supporters. Drawing on a hoax by Action Française in 1929, Christophe Granger dissects this captured narrative and the perspectives for breaking free from it.
What is this hoax orchestrated by Action Française in 1929, and who is the author?
Christophe Granger is a historian and sociologist, author of “Ceci est un canular” published by éditions la Découverte. In 2020, he won the Prix Femina essai for his book “Joseph Kabris ou les possibilités d’une vie” published by Onamosa. He directs the collection “Le mot est faible” at this publisher.
The Poldève hoax is a political trap all the more violent because it takes the shape of a simple hoax. It is one of the instruments through which the far-right of that time attacked the Republic to overthrow it by targeting its elected officials. In this case, the trap comes from the ranks of Action Française, this nationalist, antisemitic, and antidemocratic far-right group that prepared Vichy. It was created by a long-time activist, Alain Mellet, a “camelot du roi” familiar with street actions, noticed by Maurras, and turned journalist.
Mellet invents a people, the Poldèves, subjected to famine and exploitation by local landowners. He sends two letters to French deputies begging for help. He targets left-wing deputies, from center-left to communists, in the name of national solidarity, the revolutionary homeland, and the right of peoples to self-determination. In total, 15 deputies fall for it.
A month later, Action Française reveals that it was all fake, that…
